If you’re looking to learn the art of playing Japanese drums, or Taiko, this hack, done as a school project by [Cornell] students, could be a really helpful aid. The project write-up is very impressive and includes a detailed explanation of their work, the source code, and a bill of materials if you’d like to try to duplicate this device.
The tutor device is able to tell between soft hits, hard hits, and rimshots using a piezoelectric sensor hooked up to an ATmega1284P microcontroller. This data can then be transmitted to the “follower” drum using an infrared transmitter. These beats can be used in several modes including: follow the leader, metronome, repeat after me, and drum battle mode.
Ok, maybe there’s no drum battle mode, but be sure to check out the demonstration of the Taiko teaching aid after the break. There’s a lot of details about the build, but they start some calibration drumming around 4:00 if you’d just like to see it in action.
Great working project!
/me checks on yahoo auctions to see if Taiko no Tastujin machines are any cheaper since last time he checked..
I’ve got the PS2 version of Taiko Drum Master, but it’s nothing like using the arcade controllers. Still makes downstairs neighbors mad though.
I love how embedded videos can cause random video streaks just like regular YouTube videos. It only gets confusing, when you realize that a video about zero being even has nothing to do with Taiko…